Give Credit where Credit is due!

One of the most important things you can do as a scrapper is give credit to those wonderful people that create these packages we use. No matter if you paid for them or found them on a free site. Each designer put in their own time and skill to make these special things for each of us and deserves credit.
There are many methods you can do in tracking credit for a layout. Find what works for you. What works for me is using notepad and copy/pasting my information into the file info for my layout. That way it is with each layout and I do not have to go search for that information. You can also make a hidden layer on your layout if you like that better, same principle. Here are the steps for my way of doing it.

Here is the layout I designed today. If you are like me when I create a layout I usually grab things from other kits, which makes tracking more difficult. In this kit I used several different designers.

After I complete a layout I open notepad (located by going to start | all programs | accessories). I then start copying the individual layers (one from each package). To copy I double click on the title of the layer, when it turns blue (where you could edit the line) I do a ctrl + c command.

After I copy and paste (quick command for paste is ctrl + v) them all over to notepad, I even keep track of my fonts, I start deleting the individual element name. People need to know what package you used not that you used ribbon_12 from so and so's package.

When you have edited your notebook file, select everything and copy.

Once you have copied your text from your notepad, go back to your Photoshop Elements program and go to File, File Info....

 I always place my credit in the caption box.

Now this layout always will have its credit already listed out. This comes in handy when you are building new profiles at scrapbooking galleries, who wants to take the time to organize things, AGAIN. This way you open, copy, paste and viola you are done.

ALSO - did you know that at certain sites you can link designers packages back to a store. This is just the ultimate way to give credit. Talk about promoting your favorite designer! One click and someone can buy their product.

Lets all support our designers hard work with credit. It is the right thing to do!

Extraction!

Extraction!!! I love the effect extraction gives a layout. Extraction is the procedure in which you cut out the focus of the photo. No background distractions, no blank space that has no value in a photo. Just your subject FRONT and CENTER! When I extract I use the polygonal lasso tool, I usually set a feather of around 2-5, the tutorial on how to use this tool is located here.

Journal, Journal, Journal!!!!

Hey Scrappers me again, thought I would write my tip/tutorial this Wednesday about Journaling.  I dont know about you but it is one of those things I struggle with when scrapping. Being someone that is more artistic than historical I always try to let my layouts tell the story of whats going on. Lets face it, right now those layouts make sense, but give it 10, 20, 50 years and I'm not sure the story will be as vivid. I love knowing that the work I do will be able to be passed down and my grand children and great grand children will get to see how our family was way back in 2012!

So dont be afraid to write a book! Here are some examples of Journaling.

Don't be afraid to tell your thoughts! Your family will love hearing your point of view!!! Give some details! Don't forget dates and who is in the picture or who attended!!!

Change up the Size!!!

How many of you ever create things that aren't 8x8 or 12x12? I absolutely LOVE changing things up with my projects. I try to make 4x6 photo cards for special occasions or holidays! Even have created a whole brag book digitally to be played on the grandparents digital frames. They love things like that! 

 Announcements - Christmas Cards

 Quotes to put around the house

 Grandparents love BRAG books :)

Creating things for frames in your home extends the possibilites of digital scrapbooking. Take a favorite quote and scrap it and print it for an 8x10 frame. 
 My new project in the works is to use some old windows I have collected over the past few years. Going to paint them up and glaze them so I can showcase and change out the images often!!

Hope this sparks some creativity!!!!
 

Cookie Cutter Tool

COOKIE CUTTER

 

I love the cookie cutter tool. Absolutely use it on almost every layout. Say you want to create a tile of the same sized squares of paper and/or photos. Cookie Cutter is one way of doing it.

 

Cookie Cutter tool is the Blue Star on the Left hand tool bar. You can cookie cut in any Shape, you can do fixed shapes or unconstrained shapes, the possibilities are endless.

 

To create the photo strip in this layout I needed all the photos to be the same size. I selected a fixed size and placed my inches in the boxes. Cut each photo on their own layer and then created my layout.

Think about how long it would of taken me to crop out each photo and not loose proportions in the photos without the cookie cutter tool!

Here is one other layout where I used the cookie cutter so I could have the same size squares. I used photos mixed with papers to create this look.

I probably use the Cookie Cutter tool the most when I need a photo to fit into a frame - be it a circle or a square its a piece of cake with the Cookie Cutter tool.

Enjoy using the Cookie Cutter tool!!!!

Wednesday Tip/Tutorial/Technique: Power of Three

Hey Scrappers
With all the fun going on this week at B2N2 Scraps I thought I would give you one more tip that might inspire a fun layout.
Use 1 photo, the same photo, in 3 ways.

This is the same photo in different sizes. Use of black and white vs color also helps you focus.

Here I used the same photo 3 times but cropped and blew up the photo.

Hope this sparks some creativity. I love the Power of Three!

Tip: Use a verse in a song, quote or poem!

Hi Scrappers!
Thought I'd give ya some inspiration through a tried and true tip, use the written word!
Songs, Poems and quotes are great to jump start a layout or put the finishing touches on one.

Here are some examples.

A smile is like the sunshine; It brightens up the day. It gives the eye a twinkle and chases frowns away.

Sunsets are so beautiful that they almost seem as if we are looking through the gates of heaven. John Lubbock

I hope this gives you a little spark of inspiration!

My Favorite Tool: Polygonal Lasso Tool

One of my absolute favorite and most used tool to use is the Polygonal Lasso Tool. If you have not tried this tool for your extraction needs you are missing out!
Here is a simple way I use the tool.  (By the way, if you don't see the tool, click in the lower right hand corner of the lasso tool you will see three options, select polygonal lasso)

By selecting the tool  and while on the layer you want to cut select the area you want to remove. Close the blinking lines and click delete on the keyboard. You can only make the blinking line go away by selecting the crop tool, and clicking on the canvas. Not sure why Adobe makes ya do that, kind of a waste of time, but that is how you make it go away!

 This is the finished product, a cool Element (wired heart) that now appears to be wrapped under and over paper.

This tool is so helpful when you want to wrap ribbons, stitches, even paper in and through elements. Makes for a fast extraction tool when you want to remove anything from a photo *note, if you want to use it for that purpose you select the area you wanna keep then click on the top tool bar menu "select" and click "inverse" - then you can click delete*

Here I extracted my sweet baby Parker out of a photo, placed him on some paper that highlighted his expression, used some elements to wrap under and over. Would of taken me a long time to try and do this layout without the Polygonal Lasso Tool!

Have fun with this tool! It is a time saver and a creative inspirational tool!

Realistic Shadows

 One of the first things I learned to make my pages look their best was the use of shadows. Not adding shadows makes things flat and boring, Nothing like paper scrapbooking. Lets face it who wants to look at flat, if we wanted to look at flat we would just use a regular photo album and smack the photo in there and call it good. Dimension, depth, that is what makes a scrapbook page (IMHO).

Here is a page with no shadows at all. One dimensional. Its an okay looking page.

When you select your shadow effect here is the basic BLACK shadow you get.

But if you change the color to a deep tone of whats behind it. Boom it pops and looks natural.

Here is a finished page with different colors of shadows depending on what is behind it.

To test this idea, take a pencil and place it over a white piece of paper, what color is the shadow. Now move that pencil to a colored piece of paper and see what color the shadow is, yep a darker shade of your paper color.
Next time you are making a layout pay attention to your shadows, they make all the difference in the world. It is a simple function but one I see overlooked on pages often. Playing with the size and distance will also change the look of each element on your page. If in your mind something needs to stand up higher on the page make sure your distance and size correlate to your imagination.

Digi Scrapping With Clusters

Bren here to bring you some tips on Digi Scrapping With Clusters.I absolutely love scrapping with clusters. I love to use all the pretty flowers, buttons, and ribbons to make beautiful clusters. Here are a few tip for scrapping with clusters...
1. Vary the size and rotation of the elements you’re clustering
2. Elements closer to the bottom layers will cast smaller shadows than those on the top of the clusters
3. Resize elements, use them 2 or 3 (or more) times, hide parts under others, just go nuts until the cluster is as big and as full as you like
4. You want to place elements so that they are behind or “peeking” out from behind other elements and not always just adding them to the top

Now you should have some basic information that will help you create a nice element cluster.  You can always start small and work your way into some more advanced elaborate clusters.  Just remember,  Variety in shape, size and position of the layer are the key to creating a great clustered layout. Here are some basic elements that can be used for clustering:

1.  Ribbon
2.  String
3.  Bows
4.  Scatter
5.  Variety in the elements (size, color, texture, shape) – buttons, flair, flowers, stars, leaves, swirls, word art strips, date tags and stitching, just to name a few

Here are just a few examples of some beautiful layouts designed using B2N2 kits and clusters...

Photoshop Shortcuts

When working in Photoshop, there are many shortcuts that you can use to get scrap booking done in a flash. CTRL+Z is a great shortcut in Photoshop. Accidently clipped a paper over your photo layer? CTRL+Z to the rescue! Resized an element and made it too small? CTRL+Z can fix that! There are many more shortcuts than CTRL+Z (undo) though. Photoshop shortcuts can be a key part of a digital scrapbooker’s tool box. Shortcuts will be different in Photoshop Elements than in Photoshop and the way one scrapper works in their scrapbooking software may be quite different than another scrapper, so the shortcuts each would need will be quite different. Perhaps the easiest way to identify useful shortcuts for you is to pay attention to the menu listings. The shortcut will be beside most action items. Most software programs will let you set custom shortcuts and Photoshop is no exception. There are many great tutorials out there such as this one on How to Customize Photoshop Shortcuts. Here is a handy Shortcut Chart for Photoshop that will give you the most common shortcuts....